.Conclusion.

We have now entered the greatest jubilee in history. Previous great jubilees have been illustrations and foretastes of what is now coming.

The first historic jubilee was like the seed of a seed. The birth of Abraham was the barely visible beginning of a vast divine plan. Abraham did 2 essential things. He came out of Babylon by faith and he lived in the promised land. The first was a deliverance from slavery. The second was the possession (by faith) of his future inheritance. None of the further jubilees would have occurred if he had not obeyed God.

At the Exodus, the second historic jubilee, the Israelites came out of Egypt. Like Abraham they escaped from slavery and set out to claim the land that God had promised them for an inheritance. This jubilee was another birth, not just of one man this time, but of a nation.

The third great jubilee, the dedication of Solomon’s temple, was the fruit and fulfilment of the second. The liberated slaves have now totally possessed their promised land and completed the building of God’s temple. In grand consummation the power and presence of God descends and fills it.

The fourth, fifth and sixth jubilees in different ways re-enact the first 3.

The fourth, the return from Babylon, was like the first. A small group of pilgrims set out in the steps of their father Abraham to live again in the promised land. Like Abraham’s birth this might seem like a small and insignificant beginning. But they left Babylon and went to the land of Israel where alone God’s plans and purposes could be fulfilled. Without the return from Babylon Jesus could not have been born to a Jewish mother in Bethlehem.

The fifth great historic New Testament jubilee was the beginning of a completely new order in God. All previous jubilees were just types and shadows. Jesus came to fulfil the law and the prophets, and indeed the whole of Israel’s history. He brought the spiritual reality of which all those things were just shadows and pictures. This fifth jubilee corresponds most strongly to the second. Jesus like Moses comes to deliver a people from bondage. Jesus does in the spiritual realm what Moses did in the natural realm. The exodus was the birth of Israel, the natural people of God. This jubilee was the birth of the true church, the spiritual people of God.

The sixth jubilee is and will be the fulfilment and culmination of all previous jubilees. Like 4 of the 5 historic jubilees it is a new birth and beginning. It is the birth of the sons of God, and the beginning of a new order. For this reason, I believe, though it has already begun it is not yet widely and clearly visible.

As in previous jubilees this jubilee is a liberation. We will see liberation both from Egypt and from Babylon. The sons of God will have victory over both. For centuries the true people of God have been held captive by manmade religious systems. God is now calling them out of this captivity, and more and more people are hearing, understanding and obeying that call.

We have seen that whereas the Exodus was a birth and a beginning, the jubilee of Solomon was a climax and a culmination. Moses lead an undisciplined rabble of slaves out of Egypt. 500 years later they were a powerful people with a country, a capital and a king. In the centre of it was the newly built temple of God, and the glory of God descended to fill it. This occasion was far more glorious than the Exodus, but it owed everything to it. Without Moses there would have been no land of Israel, no Jerusalem and no temple.

In the same way this consummation jubilee will be far more glorious than the New Testament jubilee, but it will be wholly founded on the life and death and resurrection of Jesus. Without Jesus there would be nothing. Without Pentecost and Peter and Paul and the scriptures they wrote there would be nothing. What they all did was the foundation; this will be the completed building. Its glory will exceed everything that has gone before.

The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ (Anointed), and he will reign for ever and ever.’

May we be partakers of the glory that lies before us.